• History
  • Introduction
  • Exhibition Essay
• Makers
  • 30 Years 30 Makers
• Resources
  • Press/Reviews
  • Videos
  • Action Research
    • At Home 2002
    • At Home II 2006
    • Apprenticeships in the Making 2012
  • Conferences
  • Catalogues
  • Education Resources
• 2016 exhibition
  • Crafting Enterprise Action Research
  • Crafting Enterprise meets Made in the Middle

What inspires me

I see my role as a story teller. Sometimes there's a specific reason for making a piece. It can be a big story like the Matthew Bolton piece, that covered his life and interests, or it might be something very transient like a single heartbeat.

My work has dramatically evolved over the years. At the moment I work a lot more on a screen. I don't use sketchbooks like I used to.

Making in the Midlands

Place can be quite important. For instance I've made very specific work such as the Haematology Centre. I live in Birmingham because I like it, but it doesn't really have any impact upon the development of my work as a maker. The important thing for me in terms of location has been the link with Redditch and VSM (which is the company that distributes Husqvama Viking and Pfaff sewing machines.)

What has changed most about the crafts in the last thirty years

I think that perhaps the profile of Birmingham makers isn't as invisible as it once was. Also, one of the problems that I think is happening is that technology is evolving into making. It's becoming such a part of art, that if you are outside academia, it's hard to keep up pace with that. I have been thinking of whether I want to go back into academia because I want to use that technology, and it's very difficult for me. How do you fund learning? That's a really difficult problem that I think makers have. I don't want to be the person who makes the same work for twenty years. I just think, "Aren't you bored!!??" I couldn't do that.

Website: http://karinathompsontextiles.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.karinathompson.co.uk/